Publications

The U.S.-Israel-Iran war has placed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — under growing economic pressure, though the nature and severity of this pressure vary considerably across the six states. These states now face a significant challenge. They must gauge the immediate impact of the conflict and assess their capacity to sustain economic stability under the strain… Continue reading Gulf Sovereign Wealth Funds and the Cost of Crisis Resilience

Introduction The U.S.-Israel-Iran war has disrupted higher education across the region. These effects have been particularly felt in Qatar, where the conflict has revealed the vulnerabilities in the current higher education model. The tensions have highlighted that branch campuses cannot, on their own, sustain Qatar’s status as an education hub or fulfill its long-term vision… Continue reading Higher Education in Qatar: Lessons from the U.S.-Israel-Iran War

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is facing a crisis of strategic identity and functional redefinition, with implications for its military and operational capabilities, the cohesion of its members, and its role. The Alliance, founded in 1949 with the signing of the Washington Treaty by 12 states, drew its original legitimacy from a deterrence logic directed at the Soviet Union. Today, however, NATO finds itself under mounting strain as growing divergences within the transatlantic alliance, compounded by longstanding U.S. demands for greater European burden sharing, overlapping crises across multiple regions that have exposed differences in American and European strategic priorities, and Washington’s gradual pivot toward the Indo-Pacific, increasingly reshape the Alliance’s internal dynamics and long-term trajectory.    

The U.S.-Israel-Iran war is more than a regional crisis. It has exposed the limits of global governance, accelerated the decline of post-Cold War assumptions, and pushed states to rethink security, globalization, and strategic adaptation in an emerging multipolar order.

Key Takeaways   From Pan-Arab Solidarity to Project-Based Regionalism: Gulf–Maghreb relations no longer reflect formal integration drives, but a focus on distinct projects and sectoral cooperation. This offers flexibility, but limits institutional depth. Divergences are Structural, Not Tactical: Disparities among Maghreb states in their Gulf engagement are not temporary or personality-driven. Rather, they reflect structural… Continue reading The Gulf-Maghreb Strategic Realignment

More than just the latest episode in a familiar cycle, the February 28, U.S.-Israeli airstrikes against Iran are a structural rupture for the Gulf, a moment after which the region’s security assumptions cannot simply be reassembled. Qatar had tirelessly but fruitlessly lobbied against renewed escalation. But within 48 hours of the first strikes, Iran had retaliated across all six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, and Qatar, home to the United States’ largest regional military installation and the world’s foremost liquefied natural gas (LNG) export complex, absorbed strikes that were, by design, both symbolic and structural.

Executive Summary The Doha Global South Health Policy Initiative (DGSHPI) was launched in 2024 by the Middle East Council on Global Affairs (ME Council), in partnership with the Gates Foundation and with the support of the Government of Qatar. This initiative emerged as a response to persistent challenges in many Global South health systems, where… Continue reading Annual Convening 2025 of the Doha Global South Health Policy Initiative

This issue brief examines the domestic impacts of the war with Iran across six dimensions to assess whether the U.S. can sustain a large-scale foreign conflict when the fiscal capacity and public trust required to support it are under severe strain, namely: (I) partisan political polarization, (II) media dynamics and narrative construction, (III) shifts in public opinion, (IV) economic pressures, (V) the escalating cost of defense and national security, and finally (VI) the psychological–strategic dimension and its implications for the future of America’s role in the world.

Executive Summary This report presents key takeaways from the roundtable entitled “Water Diplomacy and Governance in the MENA Region,” held on September 28-29, 2025 at the headquarters of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs (ME Council) in Doha, Qatar. The roundtable was co-organized with the Geneva Water Hub and the Blue Peace Middle East… Continue reading Water Diplomacy and Governance in the MENA Region

Since the U.S.–Israeli attack on Iran on 28 February 2026, Türkiye has had to manage a war within its security environment. Ankara’s response has rested on one central reading: the current turmoil was not an inevitable regional eruption, but the product of a U.S.–Israel strategic choice, with Israel widely cast in Turkish official and public discourse as the principal driver of escalation. Yet Türkiye’s room… Continue reading Iran War: Ankara Seeks to Reap Benefits of a Calibrated Response  

Lebanon is at a critical phase, perhaps the most delicate and dangerous in its modern history, as the war raging on its soil and a chronic, escalating domestic crisis intersect with developments across the region. After the launch of direct negotiations with Israel and the start of face-to-face talks between the United States and Iran in Islamabad, a temporary American-Iranian truce is holding, but the Strait of Hormuz is still blocked, and Lebanon teeters on a cliff edge.

Nearly two months after the launch of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war on February 28, 2026, global energy markets have moved past the “geopolitical risk premium,” a temporary price increase that reflects the uncertainty of armed conflict. Instead, they have now entered a far more perilous phase that the International Energy Agency (IEA) calls the “largest supply… Continue reading Iran War: Grappling With an Unprecedented Energy Crisis